BASEBALL

BASEBALL; 45 Homers, .319, 110 R.B.I. Add Up to M.V.P. for Jones

By JUDY BATTISTA

Published: November 18, 1999

The Baseball Writers' Association of America confirmed yesterday what Mets fans -- and certainly Mets pitchers -- have known since mid-September: that Atlanta's Chipper Jones is the National League's most valuable player.

Jones all but locked up the landslide vote -- he received 29 of 32 first-place votes -- when he almost single-handedly clinched the National League East title for the Braves and nearly prevented the Mets from making the playoffs by belting four home runs in a three-game sweep that began a seven-game losing streak for New York.

The Braves led the division race by just one game over the Mets when the series began. When it ended, the Braves were a comfortable four games ahead and on their way to another World Series, and the Mets were reeling toward oblivion.

The Mets ultimately recovered -- they broke the losing streak with a victory over Atlanta a week later -- and stretched the Braves to six games in the National League Championship Series, largely by pitching around Jones.

''Those four home runs were huge,'' Jones said. ''Any time I've read anything over the last couple of months pertaining to the m.v.p. race, they point to that Mets series. I was fortunate to be seeing the ball really well at that time. Playing against a New York team, where you get the press you get in New York, I'd like to think my name was on the map before that, but that jump-started everything.''

Just a few months before, Shea Stadium had started its own ''M-V-P'' chant for third baseman Robin Ventura and second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo. Ventura (.301, 32 home runs, 120 runs batted in) finished sixth in the voting, Mike Piazza (.303, 40, 124) was seventh and Alfonzo (.304, 27, 108) was eighth. Houston's Jeff Bagwell finished second and Arizona's Matt Williams was third.

But midway through the season, Jones became the front-runner for the award. The Braves had been decimated by injuries to their top offensive players all season. Many observers thought that when catcher Javy Lopez went down as the season entered its final two months that the Mets had a perfect opportunity to finally win the East.

But Jones had worked on hitting right-handed with Don Baylor, the Braves' former hitting coach. More comfortable from the right side of the plate than he had ever been in his career -- something Manager Bobby Valentine of the Mets discovered when Jones hit homers from both sides of the plate in the first game of the sweep -- Jones belted 45 home runs (third in the league behind Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa) and hit .319 with 110 r.b.i., 116 runs, 25 steals and 126 walks.

Jones, a third baseman, was also third in the league in walks, fourth in slugging percentage (.633), on-base percentage (.441) and total bases (.359), seventh in runs and 10th in batting. He was particularly impressive during the second half of the season, hitting 30 homers and driving in 79 runs after June 15.